The Spiral House is situated on a hillside in Ramat Gan,
one of the towns in the Dan metropolitan region that includes the
city of Tel Aviv. The building is designed like an enlarged set of
steps that begin on the ground and spiral upwards.

On the lower side, it creates terraces open to the sky; on the
other side, a shaded area cooled by the lower floors. The cool,
shady area is used for corridors, entrances to apartments fan
shaped apartments, ramps, staircases, and an elevator. The heart of
the building, the most important element, is the interior
courtyard.

Photo courtesy Zvi Hecker

A building is based on the precision of an idea on which
variations are made. With the Spiral House, the idea itself is very
simple, therefore the variations can be very complex. The building
is a spiral staircase enlarged to the proportions of a house.

Then comes the spontaneity, based on precision, developing over
several years. It can exist, since the design was incomplete when
the building began. For example, we didn't know how the balconies
and stairs would come out, and other elements such as the wall,
which I thought would support the stairs, actually shifted its
function. Other elements, which did not even occur to me at the
time, seemed indispensable later on.

/´Zvi Hecker

Photo courtesy Zvi Hecker

When in Israel, Hecker lives across from the Spiral House in the
Dubiner House, which he designed with his mentors (and later
partners) Alfred Neumann and Elder Sharon in 1963. Principles from
the earlier building linger on at the Spiral House; the inner
courtyard, the staggering of the building's levels which allows
stepped open terraces, skyscape views, and also more banal views
provided by the surrounding houses.

In both buildings, the geometric aspect of the design is of
great importance; it dictates the division of the interior spaces,
the position of columns, and the building forms. The primary
difference is in the geometry; opposite a sharp angled building
composed of many ribs stands a building with curved forms that
derive their energy and rationale from the rotation of a
spiral.

Photo courtesy Zvi Hecker

Photo courtesy Zvi Hecker

The construction of the new building opposite where he lives
enabled Hecker to maintain constant and scrupulous supervision of
the project. The ability to incorporate changes during construction
is a central factor to Hecker, who feels the immediate and
unexpected solutions found on the site are inconceivable at the
planning stage. He prefers to make conceptual design changes and
implementation on site.

Photo courtesy Zvi Hecker

The idea of using stone arose during the working process, and
the addition of plaster to the stone created a surprising result.
The difficulty in obtaining a straight wall forced Hecker to use so
called 'bad' (raw) concrete, but when mixed with a very smooth
plaster, it looks more like a sculpture than white plaster.

Photo courtesy Zvi Hecker

Hecker gave himself great freedom of expression by using
materials associated with old and poor neighborhoods, not with a
bourgeois suburb. (He was once told that the building looked as
though it was created when a tornado swept through Ramat Gan and
collected all the junk into one place.)

The decision to use cheap, thin pink stones (often found on the
sides of falafel shops) on some of the walls, and pieces of mirror
in the ceilings between the stones and on the exterior plaster
walls, combined with the use of corrugated metal sheets, has
created a unique building. The mirrors reflect the building's
interior, the surrounding trees, the light, and the sky. In some
instances, the set in mirrors take on serpentine forms, a recurrent
theme in Hecker's architecture, which increase the building's
dynamism.

Photo courtesy Zvi Hecker

In the 1970's, Hecker worked on the idea of a spiral building
with the apartments grouped around a central, load bearing column
within which all the service functions were located. In the Spiral
House, the retaining column has been removed and replaced by an
open courtyard.

The Spiral House deploys the principle of terracing typical of
Arab villages where the roof is used as part of the living space
for the apartments. The organization of the living spaces around an
interior courtyard and the use of inexpensive, readily available
materials are local components that compliment the geometric order
based on a spiral.